Three weeks ago I eliminated all meat from my diet in an effort to test the waters and determine my comfort level in living on foods that do not include meat.  My goal is to evaluate how the test is going at the one month then two month marks.  As I approach the one month mark I am feeling very good and have been happy with my available food choices.  Remaining aware that processed foods and over packaging are major issues I continue to strive toward eating locally grown produce.

Moving on from food I wanted to make a quick note regarding the local public transit system which I looked into this past week.  Public transportation in my area is lacking and in my opinion run poorly.  Twice I checked routes from my apartment to destinations and found that they each required three separate buses and/or trains.  The distance to the destinations were less than 10 miles and in each case the first bus goes the opposite direction I want to go before transferring to the second bus/train.  If we expect any significant amount of the population to utilize public transit over private automobiles there needs to be a good deal of improvement to the system.

Making my own laundry soap is one of those experiences I never imagined would actually feel so rewarding however just knowing that it’s homemade and better for both me and the environment it actually is just that, rewarding.  The process requires very little effort and the payoff is huge; I really don’t know why everyone doesn’t make their own.

While I have made my own laundry soap for a year or so it has only been a couple weeks since I started making my own cologne, shampoo, hand soap, dish soap, and dishwasher powder.

Each of these products is very easy to make with natural and organic ingredients which again is better for me and the environment.    For household cleaning I use natural products like vinegar and baking soda which eliminates some very harsh chemicals like bleach and ammonia.  Remember not only do you breath in all these chemicals you use but they also all end up in the Ocean.

My toothpaste, deodorant, and bath soap are natural and/or organic which means my household is now officially chemical free, at least as far as chemicals I am able to eliminate.  Living in an apartment keeps me from removing carpet and other such off gassing components typically found in a household.

My use of reusable shopping bags has saved countless plastic shopping bags as I often stop by the store on the way home from work (note to self: better plan grocery shopping).  Banning plastic bags while controversial is something I support.  Just read up on the garbage patches in our Ocean and you will see why I support banning disposable plastic shopping bags.  My goal is to eliminate as much disposable plastic form my life as possible.  This is not as easy a task as one might think which you soon realize while shopping for groceries.  It seems almost everything is wrapped in plastic.  Another item I have stated using is light weight mesh bags for use in place of disposable plastic produce bags.

My quest for going green continues and I am currently considering a worm composter in order to break down food and paper waste which I can then use to fertilize my garden.  More on this once I get serious about it.

Well there are a few of the steps of I have taken toward living greener and minimizing my impact on the planet.  There are additional steps I have taken which I will share in upcoming posts.

Until next time be happy and think green thoughts!

In this post I wanted to focus on how you can help the RSF and support the foundations mission.

One of the easiest ways that you can help on a daily basis is by using iSearchiGive and iSearch. Here is a description, taken from the RSF forums, on these services and how to use them:

iSearchiGive.com is a combination of a web search engine (powered by Yahoo search) and a source for retail stores that support non-profits with donating a portion of purchases (anywhere from 0.4% to 26%) made through iGive.com to the Reef Stewardship Foundation. So there are two ways to generate money for the RSF:

1. Use iSearchiGive.com for your web searches.

For each qualified search (see below), iGive.com will donate 1 penny to the RSF. It doesn’t sound like much, but it can add up really fast! I’ve already earned 0.27 for the RSF with just my searches today and last night. Imagine if we had 100 or 1000 people signed up?

You can help the RSF through searching in three ways:

a. You can search anonymously by pointing your browser to www.iSearchiGive.com and in the box where it says “Select your cause to start giving” type in Reef Stewardship and it should auto fill to Reef Stewardship Foundation (you may have to click on it). You can then use that search box to do your daily Internet searches.

b. You can register at iGive.com and create a user account and set your cause to Reef Stewardship Foundation. This is a pretty easy process, but if anyone has any questions let me know.

c. You can download the iGive.com toolbar at: http://isearch.igive.com/toolbar.cfm

Install the toolbar and once you set the cause to the RSF, every search you do through the toolbar will count towards our total. One cool little feature is that the toolbar periodically updates the total raised for the RSF and displays it right in the toolbar, providing a constant reminder that you can do good for the RSF simply by searching

2. You can support the RSF by shopping through the iGive.com list of e-retailers.

a. Simply go to iGive.com and search for something you want to buy and purchase it through their list of participating stores. Anywhere from 0.4% to 26% of the purchase price will be donated to the RSF. Most major online retailers are included in the program, so no one should purchase from Amazon.com, eBay.com, BestBuy.com, etc. without going through iGive.com first!

b. Anyone who purchases something through a participating retailer within 45 days of joining iGive.com, iGive.com will give us an extra $5 bonus (on top of the money earned from the purchase). Only Amazon and eBay are excluded.

While it is not required you join iGive.com for searches only, we would love for people to register for iGive.com so we can keep track of who is supporting us.

You can register here for the RSF: http://www.iGive.com/reefsteward

Making purchases through iGive only adds a couple extra steps and really helps a worthy cause.

You can also buy RSF logo items from cafepress. The RSF has a great logo that goes well on all the items available. If you need a new shirt, coffee mug, or Sigg water bottle (just to name a few) head over to the RSF Cafepress store!

Additional ways to help are listed on the RSF website including a link to donate via Paypal.

In future posts I will go over why coral reefs are important to everyone and also what dangers they face. The issue is urgent as coral reefs are already gone, damaged, or threatened. Numbers vary slightly depending on the source though estimates are that 11 percent of the world’s coral reefs have been lost already and another 16 percent are severely damaged. Estimates also indicate that another 32 percent may be lost in the next thirty years.

There are numerous ways you can help and most take almost no time…so act now!

Recently I began volunteering with the Reef Stewardship Foundation (RSF) as their assistant webmaster. Here is the mission statement for the RSF: “Our mission is to foster a diverse stewardship community that protects coral reefs through collaborative action, research, education and aquaculture initiatives”.

With my love of oceans and concern for the environment I feel the RSF is the ideal organization for me to devote time to. Because I am passionate about saving the reefs you can expect posts in the very near future focusing on how you can help.

When shopping I try to buy organic and preferably locally grown fruits and vegetables. One source for this is the local coop which carries a good variety of organic or natural products of which many are grown or produced locally. Living in an apartment limits my ability to grow any of my own food which would be a nice option.

There are several community pea patches in Seattle and some surrounding areas though I have found that they are either too far away (negating much of the benefit they would serve) or had waiting lists that saw no end in sight. Just last month I learned of a local community garden (all organic) with open patches so I jumped at the opportunity. My dad and step mom also wanted to grow some of their own food so we decided to work a couple of plots together. With the growing season well under way we started with two plots and reserved one additional for next year. Here are a couple of pictures from my visit to the garden today.

It would be great to see additional community gardens so that those without a yard could have the opportunity to plant and grow some of their own food. The local food bank also benefits form the community garden by both planting their own vegetables and receiving donations of excess food grown by other gardeners.

First as you can see I am reworking the look and layout of my blog. My hope is to have it reflect me rather than reflect the creator of a theme. The initial layout is done and I will continue making small changes.

For this post I thought I would give an update on my tanks and what I have planned. With the acquisition of the 60g I decided to re-purpose the 28g.

The 60g will become a mixed reef with coral, fish, clams, and various invertebrates. If all goes as planned I can begin cycling it in a few months time.

The contents of my 20g tank (Various snails and live rock) will be moved to my 20g QT (quarantine tank) for temporary housing while the 28g is cleaned. My plan is to turn the 28g into a seahorse tank. This will require some modifications including downsizing the return pumps and adding a refugium with skimmer. My goal for starting the cycle on this is the end of this month.

Let me clearly state that the seahorses I acquire will be tank bred and raised. With the the availability of tank bred seahorses there is no reason to take them from their natural habitats. In many cases wild seahorse populations are in trouble (largely due to reasons outside the aquarium hobby) and I do not condone the capture of wild seahorses for the aquarium hobby. This holds true with numerous fish which should never be purchased unless you know they are tank bred (more on that in future posts). In every case, even when the species is not in danger, the effort should be made to acquire tank bred as it is more likely to survive and do well in an aquarium environment.

One must repeat the reef keepers mantra on a regular basis “Patience, Patience, and more Patience”. A common saying, with good reason, in the reef keeping hobby is “only bad things happen fast”. By next year I should have two cycled tanks with inhabitants being added gradually.

Another post will go up tomorrow which will cover other goings on in my life.

On the tank front I have added a CUC (clean up crew) which at this point is several varieties of snails. There were several different species of zoanthids that came as hitchhikers with the live rock. The latest addition was a frag of chalice coral that I won in a raffle this past weekend. On a side note I also won a 60 gallon cube aquarium in the raffle as well (can’t wait to set it up).

For some reason the images below are cut off in the post. You can click on the image to see the full shot.

Here are some pictures of the tank that I took about a week or two ago

Here are the hitchhiker zoanthids

yellow polyp zoanthids

unknown zoanthid species

And here is the frag of chalice I won

I believe my first fish will be a yellow watchman goby paired with a shrimp. Hopefully I can order that next week. Pictures will follow their arrival (I will keep up on tank updates).

My new 60 gallon tank will allow for some different species of fish I could not keep in the 28 gallon and I also plan on keeping several Tridacnid clams (colorful giant clams).

The tank was very cloudy after initially filling it though the filtration did a fairly quick job of clearing it up. Now I sit and wait for the ammonia level to spike and the cycle to run its course. This process can take weeks and even a couple months; I am hoping for a short cycle so I can move on to buying my cleanup crew (various snails).

Here are some pictures of the tank. One is from before filling and the others were taken this morning.

Unfortunately I irritated my back which was not healed from being strained last week so now I am paying the price for that.

More pictures coming as changes are made.

As I headed north from the downtown area I decided to stop in the Fremont neighborhood so I could try a coffee shop I have heard good things about. The coffee shop is named Fremont Coffee Company (not much of a mystery as to where they got the name) and is located in the historic La Roche house which as it turns out makes an excellent relaxing atmosphere for a coffee shop. My expectations were high and it would not have surprised me if I was disappointed at least to some degree. I can’t remember ever having a latte as good as this one. The rich flavor of the coffee combined with the steamed soy milk was beyond my expectations. I am torn between wishing I lived next door to them and being happy that I don’t live close enough for a daily visit. Living close to a shop that makes a latte that good could mean trouble for my wallet and health (have to moderate those carbs). I will add a stop at the Fremont coffee company to any future Seattle trips.

This past weekend I also found several very nice stores for Saltwater aquariums. Sadly there is no such store close to where I live so I will need to drive at least as far as Seattle when the need arises. The best shop I found for coral is Barrier Reef in Renton. Once my tank is cycled and stable this will be a place to visit on a frequent basis. I bought 40lbs of substrate from a local shop and ordered 40lbs of base rock online. Once the base rock arrives I will buy a few pounds of seed rock locally. Hopefully the base rock arrives before this weekend so I can begin the cycling process Saturday or Sunday.

If all goes as planned my next post will include a few pictures of my tank as it cycles (this will really be pictures of a tank full of cloudy water).

Last week I received an email saying someone had retrieved my travel bug (previously listed as MIA) which means there is a chance that it may still be in play. I have yet to see it logged in a new cache though I am hopeful. Also last weekend I took my Dad and Step Mom geocaching for the first time. We spent part of Saturday in the Lake McMurray area of Skagit County searching for five caches of which we found four. Its a beautiful rural area and the weather was perfect for being outdoors. One of the great benefits of geocaching is that you get some decent exercise while having fun outdoors. After this week it has become obvious that I am in need of some good walking shoes.

A couple of days ago my sister recommended that I watch a documentary titled Food, Inc. so yesterday I found that Netflix has it on instant play (PBS is also streaming it) and thought I would give it a try. After about fifteen minutes I had to stop the show. For those that know me I do not like any form of animal cruelty and while I am no vegetarian it does have its draw. I only got through a small portion of the show dealing with chickens when I decided I better stop watching or risk not being able to eat the chicken currently in my freezer which would be wasteful. After the frozen chicken is used up I will again attempt to watch the show in its entirety. From what I have seen and heard it seems the type of movie I feel people should see though I would caution that it is disturbing. When thinking of how great it would be if everyone ate farm raised organic vegetables and natural free range meat I have to wonder if with the worlds population is that even possible? I would like to think that it is though I would be skeptical as to how that could be accomplished. All of this may be covered in the documentary which I will watch in the coming weeks.

Organic Veggies